Military police and anti-terrorism detectives are reportedly searching for a missing consignment of anti-tank mines which were stolen from a freight train.

The wagon which had been carrying the shipment of munitions was impounded at the railway yard in Didcot, Oxfordshire.

The powerful explosives, owned by the Ministry of Defence, were part of a batch of anti-tank mines being carried from the Defence Munitions base in Longtown, Cumbria and destined for the military port in Marchwood, Southampton, where they were expected to be shipped to Afghanistan.